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As an undergraduate student at Kent State University, Rich Moore began working at a little pizza shop on the east side of Cleveland to make some extra cash on the weekends.&nbsp;

Today, he&rsquo;s working on opening location No. 9 with <a href="https://www.penn-station.com/franchise/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=how-rich-moore-found-the-multi-unit-franchise-opportunity-he-was-looking-for-in-penn-station-2711108" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">Penn Station East Coast Subs</a>.

&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t sure what I wanted to do while in college. I chose business administration as a default,&rdquo; said Moore. &ldquo;After a couple of years working in the pizza shop, I decided I really liked it. So I ended up looking for a job that would provide more of a <a href="https://1851franchise.com/pennstation/why-penn-station-is-a-simpler-more-profitable-franchise-opportunity-for-multi-brand-owners-looking-to-diversify-their-portfolios-2710590#mostRecent" style="text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">career opportunity</a>.&rdquo;

Moore transitioned into serving at a full-service dining restaurant and eventually got promoted to assistant manager. His boss at the time then invited him to work at a new Australian-themed brewpub he was starting. After a few years, Moore moved to a publicly-held restaurant company called The Cooker, where he built a career over the course of 12 years, eventually working as a regional manager.

After helping to open restaurants in Columbus, Youngstown and even North Carolina, a promotion to operations director brought Moore back to Cleveland. By the time The Cooker folded in 2003, Moore felt prepared to go out on his own. &ldquo;I toyed around with starting my own full-service concept,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I ended up looking into fast casual franchises.&rdquo;

Moore was introduced to <a href="https://1851franchise.com/pennstation" style="text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">Penn Station</a> through a previous employee. &ldquo;I first became a fan from a customer vantage point,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Early on, I recognized that it was not just any ordinary sub shop. It was unique in the fact that we grill all our sandwiches to order; our bread is freshly baked; our fries are hand-cut; and our lemonade is hand-squeezed every day. There were plenty of other sub concepts, but Penn Station was very unique in what it did.&rdquo;

After the delicious food piqued his interest, Moore got into researching Penn Station&rsquo;s business model and <a href="https://1851franchise.com/pennstation/penn-station-s-item-19-showcases-its-system-s-strength-without-having-to-rely-on-third-party-delivery-systems-2710392" style="text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">financials</a>. In addition to the quality product, Moore was sold by the brand&rsquo;s startup and ongoing support systems, the robust procedures that have been fine-tuned over the years and the brand&rsquo;s willingness to share financial data via its FDD Item 19.

&ldquo;It was just a home run,&rdquo; said Moore. &ldquo;I wanted something small so that I could spread out my financial resources and not just open one location and cross my fingers. <a href="https://1851franchise.com/pennstation/why-penn-station-is-a-great-multi-unit-franchise-system-2709855" style="text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">I wanted to open multiple locations</a>. I knew that it&rsquo;s possible to have a great concept, location and operator and still fail because the restaurant business is just like that. If I chose something where I could open five to 10 locations, even if there were some performing better than others, it would still be a successful business.&rdquo;

Moore initially signed on for a five-store development deal with the franchise. He opened his first store, a small 1,300 square-foot space, in February 2008 near the main campus of his alma mater, Kent State.

True to his vision for developing multiple units, Moore opened his second location, in Cuyahoga Falls, around a year later. Two years after that, he opened his third store in Fairlawn, followed by another in Macedonia. &ldquo;After the fourth store opened, I liked how things were going, so I wanted to expand my geography,&rdquo; said Moore. &ldquo;I negotiated with Penn Station to commit to another five-store territory.&rdquo;

Moore next purchased an existing store in Mentor, then opened up a new location in Willoughby. His seventh location was purchased from an existing franchisee across the street from the University of Akron. &ldquo;After that, I wanted to develop the west side more, so I seized on an opportunity in Avon, which is now just shy of two years old,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now, to finish off Lake County, I signed a lease for another store in Mentor on the far east side.&rdquo;

Of course, Moore isn&rsquo;t going to stop at nine Penn Stations. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m definitely going to open up a tenth location,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We are currently in the early stages of adding another five-store geography. My plan would be to go to 15 and then assess how things are going.&rdquo;

A true entrepreneur, Moore admits that he always thought he&rsquo;d branch out from Penn Station to diversify his portfolio&mdash;but nothing quite stacked up.

&ldquo;Over the course of six years, I never found anything I really felt comfortable with,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to stop doing something that&rsquo;s working. I went back to the philosophy of &lsquo;If it&rsquo;s not broke, don&#39;t fix it.&rsquo; Within the past couple of years, I stopped looking for another concept and decided I&rsquo;d just continue opening with Penn Station.&rdquo;

For Moore, it&rsquo;s the people he surrounds himself with that make all the difference. After all, that&rsquo;s how he got his start.&nbsp;

&ldquo;It brings me pride and joy to promote from within and provide other people with opportunities,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I want to take someone&mdash;like I was back in my college days when I wasn&rsquo;t sure what I wanted to do&mdash;and put them in a position for growth. Some of my general managers have been with me for going on seven years now, and they may very well have their own multi-unit opportunity down the road. That&rsquo;s what success is to me.&rdquo;

<div>&nbsp;</div>

How Rich Moore Found the Multi-Unit Franchise Opportunity He Was Looking For in Penn Station

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The Ohio-based franchisee combined his passion for the restaurant industry with his growth-minded vision to open nine Penn Station locations—and counting.

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